1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to outdoor cooking devices and, more particularly, to smoker box accessories for barbeques.
2. Background Art
Wood-fired grilling has become virtually non-existent in today's outdoor cooking. In recent years, grilling is primarily done using either gas fired or charcoal barbeques. What is missing from gas fired or charcoal barbeques are flavors given off by burning hardwoods. In addition to the popularity of outdoor grilling, various different ways of adding flavor to grilled food are also popular. One way of adding flavor to grilled food employs various types of devices to burn a smoke emitting material, e.g. woodchips and/or spices, during grilling. In this way smoke from such burning material fills a grilling chamber and penetrates the food thereby giving the food additional flavor.
Currently woodchips are commercially available for use in grilling. However, using loose woodchips requires constructing an aluminum or tin foil smoking tray (pouch) that is pierced by holes to release the smoke. Furthermore, many of these products require presoaking the woodchips in water for an interval of time. In addition to loose woodchips, there exist some packaged products that include a metallic container for the woodchips in addition to the woodchips themselves.
However, when a woodchip filled container is placed on top of a grilling surface unless the fire is extremely hot the woodchips fail to smoke due to insufficient heat. When exposed to extreme heat food often becomes over-cooked. Furthermore, extreme heat sears food too quickly which impedes smoke penetration. Some products permit placing the woodchip container below the grilling surface. However, most gas fired barbeques have curved or slanted plates over their burners which impedes placing a woodchip container beneath the grilling surface. Alternatively, a barbeque's charcoal can be arranged to provide a flat area for a woodchip container near the burning charcoal. However, in this location extreme heat from burning charcoal can quickly consume the woodchip container, and often consume the woodchips placed therein faster than desired.
United States Patent Application Pub. No. 20070266863 (“the '863 patent application”) discloses a preferably triangularly shaped smoker attachment that directly contacts a gas fired barbeque's heat source, i.e. its inverted V-shaped sear bars. Specifically, the disclosed smoker attachment replaces one or more of the sear bars inside a gas fired barbeque that are located between the gas burners in the lower section of the barbeque and the cooking grid. The smoker attachment may be supported in this location by existing sear bar supports. Since in this location the smoker device directly contacts the heat source, and since most gas fired barbeques have 2 or 3 separately controllable burners and only one burner is required for the smoker attachment, the '863 patent application alleges that it is possible to consistently control heat needed for producing a steady source of smoke for effectively flavoring food while permitting foods to be smoked at comparatively low temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,305 discloses a disposable smoke generating cartridge having a multiple perforation top that is prefilled with wood pellets. A reusable cartridge holder made of a non-combustible material such as metal or ceramic holds the smoke generating cartridge upright. The bottom of the cartridge is combustible and resting thereon within the cartridge is tinder material. Smoke production begins by igniting the cartridge's bottom which starts the tinder burning that in turn ignites the pellets. Although the bottom and the tinder burn away, the pellets do not full fall through because, due to released heat and moisture, they swell and press together and against the cartridge's surrounding wall. Held in this way, there remains adequate interstitial spaces among the wood pellets for airflow and smoke production. The assembled cartridge and cartridge holder are preferably positioned away from the burning coals but where the smoke will permeate the food.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,344 discloses a vented container filled with dry organic material such as woodchips, and also, perhaps, flavor capsules that contain spices and some water. One perforation in the container enables the container to become pressurized so smoke leaves the container in a controlled direction and at a velocity that does not cause combustion. Upon heating, the water in the flavor capsules vaporizes thereby permitting spices to intermingle with the flavored smoke. The capsules do not pre-soak the woodchips, rather it only creates water vapor for flavored spices present in the capsules. In this way, the organic material remains dry and burns.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,028 (“the '028 patent”) discloses a smoker attachment that may be placed on top of sear bars in existing gas fired barbeques. The smoker attachment includes a container adapted for receiving smoker particles, i.e. woodchips, that includes side walls, a bottom wall, and a hinged top cover. The container's bottom wall is segmented into a plurality of sections by comparatively large, rectangularly shaped openings that extend across the entire bottom wall. Inverted V-shaped openings in the attachment's side walls extend the bottom wall's opening upward toward the top cover. These openings in the bottom wall and side walls mate with sear bars, i.e. conductive members, that are located between a gas fired barbeque's burner assembly and its cooking grid. Configured in this way, upon the smoker attachment's installation in the barbeque the sear bars close the bottom wall and side walls openings and form a portion of the attachment's bottom wall. Comparatively smaller apertures that also pierce the attachment's bottom wall sections and its hinged top cover allow the entry of air from below and release smoke through the hinged top cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,849 discloses a disposable container that contains pre-soaked woodchips. A disadvantage of this approach is that the woodchips have a tendency to become waterlogged which inhibits producing smoke quickly. Furthermore, since the woodchips are organic matter it may be necessary to treat the container's contents to prevent them from molding.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,035 (“the '035 patent”) discloses an elongate, cylindrically-shaped food smoker having a hollow interior adapted for receiving woodchips. The food smoker's wall is pierced by a plurality of apertures positioned in the top ⅓ of the cylinder. A pair of detachable end caps 30 close opposite ends of the cylinder. Each of the end caps 30 has an arcuate hanging loop for suspending the cylinder 20 above a barbeque's heat source. The cylinder 20 may be suspended either from the grates of a grilling surface, or from a barbeque's lid. Suspended in this way, the food smoker may be positioned to control the woodchips' burning and the amount of smoke rather than by changing the heat. The '035 patent states that this is particularly advantageous where a very high heat is required for a particular kind of cooking, such as searing meat.
Similar to the '028 patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,183 discloses a smoker attachment for a gas fired barbeque. Also similar to the '028 patent, the disclosed smoker attachment includes a hinged top cover and openings formed in a segmented bottom wall that mate with the barbeque's sear bars. In addition to receiving woodchips, the disclosed smoker attachment may also receive a water tray thereby adapting it for smoking food.
U.S. Design Pat. Des. 283,588 discloses a cast iron smoking box having a perforated, removable lid. Removing the lid permits filling the smoking box with pre-soaked woodchips. For a charcoal barbeque, the smoking box is placed upon the burning charcoal. For a gas fired barbeque, the smoking box may be placed beneath the food grate of the grilling surface if there is sufficient room, or if there is insufficient room on top of the grate.
While various barbeque smoker devices have received much consumer interest, they do not always produce the desired result in effectively providing the smoke required for flavoring food. The device's apparent inability to produce smoke required for flavoring food is primarily due to controlling the amount of heat needed to ignite woodchips. In general, if a device does not directly contact a gas fired barbeque's the heat source, the burners must be set at a high temperature to create sufficient heat to make the woodchips smoke. A high temperature within the barbeque creates cooking conditions that impede the intended smoke flavoring. Some examples of what happens when using devices that are not in direct contact with the heat source are:    1. it takes a long time for the woodchips to get hot enough to smolder which wastes fuel and adds extra time to the grilling process;    2. cooking may begin before the woodchips start smoldering—either they do not smolder or smolder too late in the cooking process resulting in little or no flavoring being added to the food; or    3. the food cooks too quickly due to the high level of heat needed for igniting the woodchips while leaving insufficient time for smoke flavoring absorption.
Conversely, as stated previously if the device directly contacts or is immediately adjacent to a barbeque's heat source such as burning charcoal or a gas fired barbeque's sear bars, extreme heat can quickly consume the woodchip container, and frequently consume the woodchips placed therein faster than desired.
Consequently, there exists a need for a compact, smoker attachment which can be easily and quickly secured within a barbeque. Furthermore, the smoker attachment needs to be easily secured at a location within a barbeque where there exists a temperature suitable for producing smoke from all woodchips contained therein.